CIABOC to check X-mas hamper bribes

The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption(CIABOC) will take stern action against year-end hamper givers and takers which tantamount to bribing private and public officials Anti-Graft Commissioner Neville Guruge said.

Police officers, customs officials and bureaucrats were given expensive year-end gifts as inducements for favours and this amounts to corruption. "Those giving hampers were not giving alms but had an ulterior motive, when they give year-end hampers" he said.

Giving and accepting hampers were against the law and. CIABOC would take action on complaints received, he said..

Instead of giving cash, many public officials were 'gifted' with many super market vouchers and expensive consumer goods such as televisions, mobile phones and groceries as year-end gifts.

In a recent offensive, CIABOC has carried out high-profile operations to nab bribe takers, including senior police and customs officials recently.

Public servants should now be wary of people giving hampers, as they could be decoys to nab suspects accepting 'gifts'.

CIABOC Director General Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe is calling for tighter laws.|"I will campaign against any form of gratification," Wickramasinghe said of the planned anti-corruption laws. "Zero tolerance for corruption means nothing should be given at all" rmarkets, consumer goods dealers and on-line retailers have tacitly encouraged the practice by offering expensive hampers with some throwing in free home delivery to any address within the country. Guruge said there was a distinction between people exchanging gifts during the holiday season in a spirit of giving and the undue inducements to public and private sector officials.

-economynext